Field types

There are three types of field available to the village, each of which can accommodate different crops.
When you start your tenure as shoya, there will be a number of fields of each type already present in the
village. Clearing more fields is back breaking work for the people, but essential to feed a growing population.
You can also spend labour to convert fields between the different types.

Paddies

The village’s paddies are the cornerstone of its livelihood. It is in them that the rice is grown to pay taxes
and provide cash at the market (not to mention a little extra luxury in its own right). They can also have other
crops grown in them, such as grain, before the rice is ready to be planted.

Paddies are extremely labour intensive to build and maintain. They are carefully levelled and lined with clay, so
they can be flooded to the correct depth for the rice plants. A network of irrigation channels supports the village’s
paddies and, again, this us carefully built and maintained.

All the effort is worthwhile, however. The paddies are extremely fertile, and provide a large crop per tan.

Dry fields

These are plain fields, the same as those found anywhere throughout the world. They can be planted with a wide range
of crops, but not, of course, rice. They are prepared by clearing undergrowth and trees on the area to be cleared, burning
all the cut down vegetation and working it into the soil.

Dry fields are not nearly as rich as paddies, but the fact that they are easier to prepare makes them valuable to an expanding
village.

Yakihata

Yakihata are rough fields, quickly cleared and planted without much time spared for preparing the soil. The villagers often use
these for growing marginal, subsistence crops for immediate consumption, such as millet and vegetables.

Their fertility is low, but they can be prepared very easily and converted into dry fields later.